Wednesday, April 25, 2012

T#1: Training - My continued training was interrupted after marathon #4 because of injury, luckily an injury that I think is behind me. After the Charlottesville marathon, I went back to the hotel, showered up and my buddies and I who raced with me headed home. On the way to the car, my foot began to hurt. The bottom of my right foot. It was odd because I felt great throughout the marathon, even ran home from the finish line back to my hotel (only about .5 miles but still). My foot hurt for the next couple days, and I started to stress about the dreaded overuse stress fracture. After an x-ray and a week of no running, the foot was better and I was back on the horse! This weekend ran 7 miles on Saturday, 5 of them at sub 7/mile pace, then about 14 on Sunday. This morning at my usual 5am time ran 10x1/4 mile repeats at 6/mile pace.

T#2: Trails - My newest form of training has been to hit the trails near my house. I am luckily enough to live near Ridley Creek State Park, that has an extensive trail system that are great for running. Well, when I say great, I mean they kick my butt! Basically, they are either ascending or descending the entire time, which is great for my legs. Last weekend I ran the 3 miles to the Park, ran about 8 miles of trails and then ran home (and home is up 4 huge hills). It was a beast of a run, and it was 48 degrees and pouring rain to top it off. Good times!

T#3: Toys - I have been wanting to get a new running watch for some time now. I've looked at every GPS watch on the market, read the insanely extensive reviews that people write on amazon for all of them. I've had watches on hold at running stores. Not sure what I was waiting for, but I finally invested in the Garmin Forerunner 210 and love it. It gives me everything I want and need in a running watch, plus that little extra motivation to get out the door and run so I can play with my new toy!

Lastly, I can't stop reading about the Badwater Ultramarathon. It is insane, intense, extreme and I can't get enough of it. I read Dean Karnazes's second book, RUN where he talks about the race and then I bought two other books about it, want to watch the documentary Running on the Sun and have seen every Badwater race recap there is on youtube.com. I'm not going to go so far as to say I will do it someday, but...

Saturday, April 7, 2012

This weekend Craig and I completed our 4th marathon of 2012, in attempt of our 12in12in12. It was the Charlottesville, VA marathon. Nice and scenic, but not nice and hilly. Our first 3 marathons were pancake flat so this one was much different with the hills, but we got powered through at our nice easy pace and feel good afterward.

Here we are at the finish. It was a beautiful day, especially the second half of the race and afterward. The start was a bit cold. It was an early start, 6:30 am and it was in the 30's at that time. But once the sun came up it was great.Oh, yeah, and like the last marathon, I wore jeans again! After the love I received from www.joggingjeans.com, my new favorite website, there was no way I wasn't going to race in denim again! My outfit was a bit different this time as you can see, I sported the jeans clam-diggers. I guess you could call them jorts. I heard a few people on course comment, "are those jorts?" Oh yeah, pretty sweetCraig and I snuggling before the race to stay warmOk, so Craig took this perfect picture for me. The guy in the background is wearing pants, not jeans, but not what most people would run a marathon in. And on top, he has a collared shirt on! I had a to get him in the picture with me, nice camera work, Craig. Also, this was close to the end of the race so we finished together. Well, close to the guy, because about 50 yards from the finish line, this guy took off like Carl Lewis as if he was trying to win Olympic Gold! Craig and I just looked at each other, it was hilarious.So, 4 down, 8 to go. Next marathon is the Delaware marathon on May 13th, so we have some time off until then.

Monday, April 2, 2012

In between last week's Ocean Drive (jeans) marathon and next weekend's Charlottesville marathon had to do a little running, so while I was down at the beach for Spring Break mini-vaca I had the chance to run on the beach. It was nice day yesterday, a bit windy, but felt nice to run somewhere beautiful like on the beach. Ran for an hour and 20 minutes, dodging the waves as the tide came up. Felt a little naked in shorts after wearing jeans to run my last marathon. Maybe that is my next marathon outfit to outdo the jeans, my birthday suit??!!! Race officials didn't mind the jeans, but they may not be too psyched about me running naked!

After the run came home and laid on the deck in the sun, below is the view from the deck. So relaxing, and the warm sun felt awesome.And Casey was out with me, as usual, licking the sweat off me. What a dog.Charlottesville in 5 days. Not sure what I'm going to wear, maybe I'll go conventional running attire. But after my jeans outfit inspired by www.joggingjeans.com and all the love I got from my new friend Jill, my days of running in denim are DEFINITELY NOT OVER!!!